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Newsletter March 2015

A Sweet Shabbat: As has become a custom, on the Thursday before our monthly Kabbalat Shabbat community all city residents are invited to bring baked goods to Shlomit, our coordinator. With the assistance of municipal community services, these are then distributed to families in need. Once again, many baked goods were brought. Thanks to all for the donations, and for making another family’s Shabbat so much sweeter!

Bar Mitzvah: This past month the Ohel Menashe community celebrated its first Bar Mitzvah ceremony with Ori Markovitch’s Aliya to the Torah. It was a moving ceremony for all, and for many guests an unusual one, as it was egalitarian and everyone sat together as families. Ori read beautifully, and wrote an interesting Dvar Torah for a challenging Torah portion.
We are thankful for the opportunity for having been a part of this family’s special occasion, and having said She’hechiaynu at the first Bar Mitzvah, we look forward to conducting many more services such as this.

A Day of Good Deeds: In recent years, March 24th has been deemed as a day of good deeds in Israel, and many people and organizations plan and carry out special projects then. With the donations given at our recent Purim party, we purchased gifts for children at an after-school daycare center. The children enjoy arts and crafts, and at their request, we were pleased to provide them with materials for these artsy projects.

Community survey: In January we conducted an online needs survey in the city. Currently we are processing the information gathered and will soon publicize the findings. As promised, we raffled off three book store gift certificates among participants that shared their personal info. The winners are: Osnat Fleischer, Roni Gati and Ruth Ofer, who were all surprised and pleased to receive their gifts. Thank you to all that participated and assisted with the distribution.

Bat Mitzvah program: The sixth meeting of the Bat Mitzvah program took place just as Passover vacation began. The girls met with elder women at the Center for Elders in Yokneam, heard fascinating stories from them about what it was like to be 12 and growing up in the past. Then the girls and the women worked together and created an original piece of art to portray the story. It was an interesting and colorful meeting.

Cultural event at municipal library: Just before Passover, Dr. Moti Arad, from the Schehcter Institute, gave a lecture regarding an alternative view of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Based on passages from the Mishnah and the Torah an underlying layer of neighborly relations between the Israelites and the Egyptians. We discovered that the interpretation of the texts in a certain manner served certain purposes, and that there are always various possibilities of viewing historical events. It was fascinating and eye-opening.